Sources close to the development claim that the film’s budget has ballooned to Rs 50 crore, while senior members of the technical crew, including the Director of Photography, walked out of the project in its first schedule, due to which the production period had to be extended from five months to a year-and-a-half. Now, fallouts between producers Prernaa Arora and Arjun N Kapoor of KriArj Entertainment and Abhishek, and the director and his leading man Sushant, have come as the final nail in the coffin. Mirror has learnt that Prernaa and Arjun as well as Abhishek have now resorted to legal measures to communicate with each other.

All about money

A source from Ekta Kapoor’s Balaji Motion Pictures informed Mirror that before the release of his last directorial Fitoor, Abhishek had struck a Rs 12-crore deal with Ekta to develop several projects. However, the signing amount was later reduced to Rs 8 crore as the production house felt the projects were too expensive and intended to eventually call the deal off. But when Prernaa came on board as producer on Kedarnath, Ekta was happy to take a backseat as Associate Producer on the film to safeguard her investments.

Trouble started three months ago, when KriArj and Abhishek’s banner — Guy In The Sky Pictures — began quarrelling about returns on investments. “Music partners and co-producers T-Series was offering Rs 6 crore for the music rights, which Abhishek was not okay with. He wanted double the amount. There were major disagreements over satellite and digital rights as well and Abhishek threatened to shelve the film if his demands were not met,” a source close to Prernaa told Mirror, adding that it was KriArj that had brought T-Series on board since the two production houses were collaborating on three films at the time.

The Sushant-Abhishek cold war

Sushant Singh Rajput’s management agency Kwan had locked his dates till December 2017 and it was conveyed to the Kedarnath team that the actor would remain unavailable as he has two other films lined up at the beginning of 2018. However, when shooting for Abhishek’s film kicked off in June last year, Abhishek allegedly demanded that Sushant give more time to the film.

“The film was to be delivered to the producers by June 2018 but Abhishek said that he wanted more time with the cast and that the schedule should be pushed by 15 days due to erratic weather in Kedarnath. This did not go down well with anybody. Meanwhile Sushant and Abhishek were not on talking terms due to constant creative differences on set. Kwan subsequently stepped in to salvage the situation and along with KriArj, convinced Sushant to give three more months to the film, from April to June 2018. But this has resulted in the film being delayed by one year,” the source pointed out.

When Mirror contacted Abhishek Kapoor, the filmmaker denied that the film has been delayed due to personal equations or disagreements among crew members. “There were torrential rains in November, which is why shooting had to be pushed ahead. For the film to resume rolling this April, we have already begun work on the set this month. That is the scale of this film. There are so many careers at stake and we are working very hard to see it through. Any other comments regarding fallouts with the crew are rubbish,” Abhishek said.

Clash with SRK’s Zero

A source close to Prernaa revealed that the producer had had a detailed meeting with Shah Rukh Khan to pitch a project, during which she made it known that she would avert a clash between Kedarnath and the actor’s upcoming film, Zero. “But Abhishek took to Twitter without informing the producers that his film would clash with Zero on December 21, 2018, and that he saw no threat from SRK’s film. This left Prerna red-faced,” the source added.

Meanwhile, a member of senior management at KriArj pointed out that this was not the first time that Abhishek had caused embarrassment to Prernaa with a top actor. “Anushka Sharma had approached Sara Ali Khan for a collaboration, in which KriArj would also be involved. But Abhishek refused to let Sara sign any other film until Kedarnath released and that project fell through,” the source revealed.

Prernaa told Mirror, “Henceforth, all communication with Abhishek Kapoor will take place only legally. We are sorting out the issues since we cannot back out of the film entirely as we need to recover our money. Abhishek will need an NOC from us to release the project.”

A messy debut

A person close to Ekta Kapoor told Mirror that the filmmaker’s mother, Shobha Kapoor, had been against her collaborating with her cousin Abhishek since the inception of Kedarnath. But with KriArj and T-Series on board, the Kapoor matriarch was happy that her daughter’s involvement was only limited to the director’s fee. “That’s when Shobha Kapoor gave Amrita Singh, her longtime friend, a call and convinced her to let Sara make her debut with Kedarnath. It was only at Shobhaa’s behest that Sara agreed to come on board. Now, with Ekta putting her hands up and the other producers fighting it out, this leaves Sara’s debut in a limbo,” the source noted.

Abhishek’s lawyer responds

“On January 15, it was Guy In The Sky Productions that terminated the agreement with KriArj Entertainment and not the other way around. The decision was made after all cheques received since November had bounced. Even the NEFT numbers provided by KriArj were incorrect. Prerna was trying to deal with third parties for the music and satellite rights but the MoU between the two production houses clearly states that KriArj cannot deal unilaterally with any third party. In this case, Prerna did not inform Abhishek about her deal with T-Series. There is an obligation in the film’s contract where KriArj will bear the production costs of Rs 29 crore as well as Rs 7 crore as Abhishek’s fee. KriArj has not paid more than Rs 10 crore for the project. If they had a case they would be in court by now. This is just a case of slander and sabotaging the film.”

Guy In The Sky Pictures issued a letter to Prernaa on Febraury 12: KriArj to stop all business transaction on Kedarnath with immediate effect including investments and sales. Guy In The Sky Pictures shall produce the film with any party/parties as they deem fit in order to take the film to completion and release.

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